Michelle Pfeiffer Accidentally Joined a Cult

Actress Michelle Pfeiffer attends the "Grease 2" Premiere Party on June 9, 1982 at the Red Parrot in New York City.
Photo:
Ron Galella/WireImage

When Michelle Pfieiffer moved to L.A. she fell into a cult run by a couple of personal trainers who tried to keep her on an extreme workout and diet regimen.

“They worked with weights and put people on diets. Their thing was vegetarianism. They were very controlling. I wasn’t living with them but I was there a lot and they were always telling me I needed to come more. I had to pay for all the time I was there, so it was financially very draining," she revealed in an interview with the Sunday Telegraph's Stella magazine.

The couple also believed in a lifestyle called "breatharianism," wherein humans are mistaken for plants and expected to live on air and sunlight alone.

Pfeiffer, who couldn't really adhere to the diet, was eventually saved while she was helping her first husband, Peter Horton, research a movie about cults. "We were talking with an ex-Moonie and he was describing the psychological manipulation, and I just clicked," she said. "I was in one."

A fitness cult with crazy diets and bank-draining membership fees: simply harrowing. This may have happened to Pfeiffer in the late seventies, but let it serve as a warning to the many fame-seeking young actresses who flock to L.A. and fall prey to SoulCycle, Equinox personal trainers, and Moon Juice.